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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Learning from nature to increase resilience

More than 80 percent of
farmers in East Africa use chemicals to increase farm productivity and keep
weeds and pests from destroying their crops.

The Kenyan government
imported $1.3 billion’s worth of chemical fertilizers and $578 million worth of
pesticides during 2004-11, for agricultural production.

Farmers in Wajir,Kenya add compost and mulch around trees.TRF/Abdifatah Abdikadir

Chemical-intensive
agriculture, however, creates a cycle of economic dependency between farmers
and chemical manufacturers, discouraging biodiversity and degrading soils and
landscapes, making them more prone to drought and floods.

A design philosophy
called permaculture can be used as an alternative to the use of chemicals in
agriculture. It involves sustainable ecological systems that are self-maintained
and regenerative.

By observing and
simulating the features observed in natural ecosystems, permaculture replicates
productivity patterns that exist naturally in the environment.

As such, it stimulates
the cultivation of several crops rather than a single crop. By returning any
organic waste (including food waste and manure) into the system, it also
nurtures soils and biodiversity.

Techniques include using
perennial plants – which live for more than two years, as opposed to annual
crops – to create a permanent network of roots that help prevent soil erosion,
for example.

RESILIENCE THROUGH TRAINING

While permaculture comes
with many benefits, it doesn’t necessarily follow that farmers know how to use
it.

As part of the Building
Resilience to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme, Mercy
Corps is training communities – including farmers and government officials – on
permaculture farming with the Permaculture Research Institute of Kenya in
Wajir, Kenya, and Karamoja, Uganda.

“In an age where
corporations are marketing drought-resistant seeds, it is really landscapes
that need to be drought-resistant, not seeds’’, said Natalie Topa, Mercy Corps’
BRACED programme director.

Abdifatah Abdikadir, a
farmer from Wajir and one of the trainees, has himself adopted several
permaculture techniques such as banana circles, a way to grow fruit and
vegetable crops by using up excess water and organic waste.

He is now showing other
trainees how to apply permaculture principles in their farm work. “It’s important
for more farmers to understand and adopt permaculture,” he said.

Joseph Letunyoi, a young
Maasai man from Laikipia, central Kenya, and a trainer from the Permaculture
Research Institute, is teaching both Kenyans and foreigners such as NGO workers
how to strengthen their land and food production through permaculture.

His pastoralist
background in the Kenyan drylands has helped him connect with the Wajir
community and advise them on how to make their land and food production more
diverse and resilient.

“No matter where you are
based, permaculture can contribute to sustainable economic development,"
he said.

But permaculture isn’t
just for adults. Abdikadir and other trainers are developing a permaculture
curriculum to be rolled out in primary and secondary schools in Wajir.

Mercy Corps has also
built partnerships with educational institutions such as Makerere University in
Uganda: its agriculture curriculum now includes permaculture courses.

“Permaculture,
agroecology and agroforestry can help mitigate the land degradation and erosion
that has been caused to environments by poor land management practices,” said
Shuaib Lwasa, a geography professor at the university.

Through the BRACED
programme, two of the university’s graduate students conducted field work that
involved assessing farms’ soil acidity as well as training farmers on
permaculture with Mercy Corps.

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